This book begins with a phone call. You answer it and learn that you got the job. Several months from now you're going to stage a Shakespeare play. Now ... what do you do? I mean, what do you do after that initial burst of adrenalin has passed through your body and you realize you haven't a clue as to what the play is really about, or what you might want to do with it? How exactly do you prepare for such an equally wonderful and daunting task? This is the central question of this book. It grows out of decades of preparing for Shakespeare productions and watching others do the same. It will save you some of the panic, wasted time, and fruitless paths experienced. It guides you through the crucial period of preparation and helps focus on such issues as: · What Shakespeare's life, work, and world can tell us· What patterns to look for in the text· What techniques might help unpack Shakespeare's verse· What approaches might unlock certain hidden meanings· What literary lenses might bring things into sharper focus· What secondary sources might lead to a broader contextual understanding· What thought experiments might aid in visualizing the playUltimately, this book draws back the curtain and shows how the antique machinery of Shakespeare's theatre works. The imaginative time span begins from the moment you learn that on such and such date you will begin rehearsing such and such Shakespeare play. Our narrative clock starts ticking the moment you put down the phone and stops when you arrive at the rehearsal hall and begin your first table read. So much of what will be the success or failure of a director's project rests on this work that is done before rehearsals even begin.

Introduction: "For It Hath No Bottom" Shakespeare and the Vertigo of Multiple Meaning PART ONE: "It Shall be Inventoried" A Brief Look at Shakespeare's Dramatic World Chapter One: "Now Sir, What is Your Text?" Which Shakespeare; Which Text? Chapter Two: "And There is Much Music." Learning to Read the Visible and Invisible Score of ShakespeareChapter Three: "Wherefore Are These Things Hid?" Pattern Recognition in Shakespeare's PlaysChapter Four: "Your Actions Are My Dreams;" Structure and ShakespeareChapter Five: "Stand and Unfold Yourself" Revelation of Character in the Works of Shakespeare. PART TWO "What Means This, My Lord?" A Fourfold Approach to InterpretationChapter Six: "To Sing a Song That Old Was Sung." Plain ReadingsChapter Seven: "You Speak a Language I Know Not." Allegorical ReadingsChapter Eight: "A Natural Perspective That is and is Not." Analogical ReadingsChapter Nine: "Is Not This Strange" Abstract Readings PART THREE "Come, Give Us A Taste of your Quality." Practical MattersChapter Ten: "What Say You?" Finding the Rhyme between Shakespeare, Yourself, and Your TimeChapter Eleven: "The Fall of a Sparrow." Shaping ShakespeareChapter Twelve. "Brave New Worlds." Designing ShakespeareChapter Thirteen: "The World Must be Peopled." AuditionsChapter Fourteen: "Resolve You For More Amazement." The First Day of RehearsalChapter Fifteen: "For Here I Hope Begins Our Lasting Joy." A Word About Shakespeare's EndingsIndex